For nearly a decade, Michael P. Generakos had raised his children as a single father, tailoring his life to their needs. But for all his effort to build a stable world for his son and daughter, he seemed to be losing a grip on his own. By Monday, he apparently felt he had lost everything dear to him, everything he had worked years to protect. He had changed teaching jobs repeatedly to accommodate his children's school needs, scrimping by at times.

Orange police shot and killed a man early Saturday after he fired at officers several times during a five-hour standoff, authorities said. No officers were injured. The man's wife called authorities to the couple's home on East Garfield Avenue in Orange shortly after 8:45 p.m. Friday. She told authorities that her husband, Steve Coleman, 48, had a rifle and a handgun, and was threatening to kill her and himself. "She was able to leave the home to call police," said Orange Police Sgt. Dave Hill.

A 9-year-old boy was grabbed from an Orange County school playground by a woman with a gun and held hostage for about 20 minutes Wednesday before he calmly negotiated his own release, authorities said. Police arrested Sheila Faye Reed, 30, of Yorba Linda, who had walked onto the campus of Van Buren Elementary School in Placentia and grabbed the youngster as he played catch with a friend.

An Anaheim man wanted for parole violations led police on a high-speed chase through half a dozen cities before barricading himself in a La Habra apartment late Friday. Edward Ramirez, 26, found police waiting for him about 7 p.m. at his home off the Riverside Freeway near East Street in Anaheim, investigators said. Instead of surrendering, he sped off in a small truck, initiating the half-hour chase. "He got on and off many freeways, making U-turns and things like that," said Sgt.

April 20, 1990 | JAMES M. GOMEZ and TOM MCQUEENEY, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

Administrators at Van Buren Elementary School stepped up campus security on Thursday and offered counseling services to students unnerved by the brief abduction of 9-year-old David Christie, who was held at gunpoint by a woman. Sheila Faye Reed, 30, of Yorba Linda, who lives with her mother a block from the grade school, was scheduled to be arraigned today in Municipal Court in Fullerton on charges of kidnaping, assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a .22-caliber handgun on school property.

A 25-hour standoff ended peaceably Tuesday when a distraught man who had holed up in his Laguna Niguel apartment with a semiautomatic pistol surrendered to police. Charles Lang, 37, was taken to a local hospital for psychiatric evaluation, said Larry Abbott, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. "He just walked out this morning and gave himself up," Abbott said. The standoff began about 9 a.m.

What began as an early-morning fistfight between two roommates who met in prison took a bizarre twist Saturday when one woman accidentally shot herself in the leg and then, toting a semiautomatic rifle, climbed up to the chimney where she held police at bay for more than two hours before giving up. Both women were arrested, then taken to different area hospitals to be treated for injuries, Costa Mesa Police Lt. Gary Webster said. Police identified the women as Darlene M.

After an armed standoff that continued into the evening Wednesday, police arrested the last of six people on suspicion of robbing a bank earlier in the day in Huntington Beach. A police SWAT team surrounded a Long Beach house throughout the evening, with the last two suspects eventually surrendering. No shots were fired. At about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, six people stormed the Bank of Yorba Linda branch, brandishing weapons and ordering seven employees and several customers to the floor.

A fire broke out Friday night in an Anaheim condominium complex where a 36-year-old man suspected of beating his wife had been barricaded for six hours, keeping police at bay by firing shots at them, officials said. About 9 p.m., the man became agitated and fired several rounds at a police SWAT team that had surrounded the building, Police Sgt. Joe Vargas said. Vargas said the man yelled at officers: "Anybody comes in here, I'm going to blow them up."

After police interrupted an attempted robbery at a grocery store, a man fled into a nearby residential area, where he took a family of four hostage and held a SWAT team at bay for more than three hours Saturday evening, police said. Edward Carmona, 32, of Garden Grove, surrendered about 8:20 p.m., and there were no injuries, police spokesman Lt. Robert Burnett said. Burnett said police responded to a call of a robbery at the Orange Farm Market on Westminster Boulevard about 4:15 p.m.

A resident of a Los Alamitos convalescent home threatened to shoot police officers with an antique musket early Saturday, prompting an hourlong standoff with officers, authorities said. Kevin Kennedy, 41, was arrested when officers rushed at him as he came to the front door unarmed, Los Alamitos Police Sgt. Rick Deleon said. Kennedy was taken into custody for a mental health evaluation, Deleon said. The standoff, which started about 5 a.m.

Police talked a Downey man out of committing suicide in the parking lot of a Westminster shopping center, persuading him to drop a gun he'd been holding to his head during the two-hour standoff. At about 7 a.m. the 30-year-old man, who police said appeared intoxicated and indicated he was distraught over marital and other personal problems, handed a coffee stand worker a note threatening suicide, according to Westminster police.

A 25-hour standoff ended peaceably Tuesday when a distraught man who had holed up in his Laguna Niguel apartment with a semiautomatic pistol surrendered to police. Charles Lang, 37, was taken to a local hospital for psychiatric evaluation, said Larry Abbott, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. "He just walked out this morning and gave himself up," Abbott said. The standoff began about 9 a.m.

A Laguna Niguel golf tournament was halted early Monday as police surrounded an apartment overlooking the El Niguel Country Club where a man had holed himself up threatening suicide. "We're just basically waiting him out," Steven Doan, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriffs Department, said regarding Charles Lang, who appeared several times on the balcony of the apartment on the 31500 block of East Nine Drive pointing a semiautomatic handgun at his chest.

A San Clemente man surrendered to Orange County sheriff's deputies early Tuesday after an eight-hour standoff, authorities said. Charles Paul Fox, 58, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said. Amormino gave this account of the incident, which began Monday night: Fox called 911 and asked that deputies be dispatched to his home because "something big" was about to happen.

A harried and tearful gunman who said he was desperate to repay student loans held more than 20 people hostage inside a Westminster bank Wednesday before surrendering to police, according to witnesses and authorities. The incident was the most dramatic of three bank robberies across Orange County on Wednesday and was the fifth in two days.

Police talked a Downey man out of committing suicide in the parking lot of a Westminster shopping center, persuading him to drop a gun he'd been holding to his head during the two-hour standoff. At about 7 a.m. the 30-year-old man, who police said appeared intoxicated and indicated he was distraught over marital and other personal problems, handed a coffee stand worker a note threatening suicide, according to Westminster police.

A 45-year-old Westminster man distraught over domestic problems surrendered peacefully Tuesday evening after firing several gunshots in the air and barricading himself in his business for nearly four hours, police said. Richard Morales, who owns Bear's State Auto Glass in the 8100 block of Westminster Avenue, held about 25 officers at bay before calling the police station and agreeing to surrender, Lt. Bill Lewis said. No one was injured in the standoff, which began about 4:45 p.m.

Dozens of alleged gang members arrested in a massive west Santa Ana police sweep pleaded not guilty Friday to charges ranging from dealing drugs to stealing autos, illegally selling guns and participating in gang crimes. Fifty-eight suspects taken into custody Wednesday during "Operation Orion" appeared in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana in a peculiar arraignment session that lasted all afternoon.

What began as a three-hour standoff between police, the SWAT team, hostage negotiators and an armed man in a Newport Beach apartment may turn out to have been something a little less dramatic--an intoxicated man who had passed out and says he didn't even know police were outside, Sgt. Pete Perrin said. About 2:15 a.m. Saturday, Newport Beach police were called to the 7400 block of Seashore Drive by neighbors who saw Larry Sepulveda, 36, brandishing an assault rifle, Sgt. Craig Frizzell said.